A consortium of environmental groups on both sides of the border is calling on Canada and the United States to strengthen protection of the Great Lakes.
They say the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, last updated in 1987, must be made stronger to deal with toxic hot spots such as Randle Reef in Hamilton Harbour, raw sewage overflows, invasive species, new toxic chemical threats and the spectre of climate change.
Cameron Davis, president of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, said: "The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement helped bring Lake Erie back from the dead in the 1970s. The lakes need that kind of help now more than ever, but it will only come if the United States and Canada make good on their promises to share the responsibility to protect them."
Other members of the consortium are Great Lakes United, the Biodiversity Project and the Canadian Environmental Law Association. They all want more meaningful public participation in a review of the agreement expected to continue through next year.
"Public involvement is key," said Hugh Benevides of CELA. "The Canadian and United States governments need to make clear commitments to protect and rehabilitate the lakes, and citizens need to be provided with better information and access to decision-making so they can hold their governments accountable ..."
In a report titled Promises to Keep; Challenges to Meet, the consortium identifies ways to achieve greater accountability, including a public petition process through which citizens would ask for an investigation of a government's failure to comply with agreement obligations.
Highlighting the need to reduce toxic pollution, Derek Stack, executive director of Great Lakes United, said, "We are talking about the drinking water of tens of millions of people."
Noting that only three pollution hot spots have been removed from an original list of 43 Areas of Concern, Stack said: "Our governments' dismal performance in the past means we must take a swift, preventative approach to new chemical threats.
"There's a new generation of pollution in our waterways. We're only just beginning to understand the health and environmental threats posed by flame retardants, pharmaceutical discharges from sewage treatment plants, and other chemicals."
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